Vera Pagava

Vera Pagava (February 27, 1907 – March 25, 1988; in Georgian ვერა ფაღავა) was a Georgian artist based in Paris.

Early life

Vera Pagava was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her father was a lawyer; her mother was an educator. She moved to Germany with her family in 1920, just months before Georgia became part of the Soviet Union. They settle in Paris in 1923, and Vera Pagava studied painting with André Lhote there. She later studied under Roger Bissière in the Academie Ranson.

Career

During World War II she served as a nurse military hospitals. Pagava's art was promoted by gallery owner Jeanne Bucher, who exhibited Pagava's paintings with Dora Maar's in 1944. Pagava also designed stained glass window installations, and created large murals; her mural work on the Vatican City pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958 was one widely seen example. Her work moved from figurative to abstract between the 1930s and the 1960s; she often used geometric forms and warm pale tones and greys in her work. "Vera Pagava susurre, ou presque" (Vera Pagava whispers, or almost), commented a critic in 2016. Another critic described her later work as "highly singular, combining formal purity with luminous intimacy."

Pagava's work was included in the Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Art in 1952. In 1966 a room of her watercolors represented France at the 33rd Venice Biennale.

Personal life and legacy

Vera Pagava died in 1988, at Ivry-sur-Seine, aged 81 years. Her remains were interred in Leeville Cemetery. The "Association culturelle Vera Pagava" was founded in Paris in 1991. A retrospective of Pagava's work was held at the Dmitri Schevardnadze National Gallery in Tbilisi in 2012. Her work is also in the collection of the Pompidou Centre.